Eighty-year-old Firoz was murdered for standing up to criminals and
pursuing
cases against them in courts for the past several years. Unfortunately,
the
battle against lawlessness was pursued by the old man all alone,
getting no
help whatsoever from the police. Firoz's battle against lawlessness
started
on 27/5/1998, when some criminals made an attempt on his life. He named
the
criminals he identified, in a report lodged at Sahibabad Police
Station. The
alleged killers Mausam, Saleem threatened him and asked him to drop the
case. But, an adamant Feroz refused to oblige them.

In a second attempt silence him, the criminals kidnapped Feroz's
son-in-law
Zakir on 23/3/2001 and kept him in hiding in village Asaara of Baghpat
District. The criminals freed Zakir only after he assured them that he
would
would pursue his father-in-law to turn a hostile witness.

This time they were sure that after this kidnapping, the complainant
would
definitely turn hostile and set Zakir free on 30/3/2001 at 4.00am near
Asaara police post of ramala police station.

Zakir, reached the police post and narrated the whole story. The Ramala
Police informed Sahibabad Police that a kidnapped person has been freed
by
some kidnappers in their jurisdictional area and was in their
possession.

On receiving the message, Sub-Inspector D K Tyagi went and brought back
Zakir with him. He threatened Zakir not to reveal the names of the
kidnappers, to which he meekly obeyed. The victim was kept in police
lockup
for two days. He was allowed to go at 1.00am on 2/3/2001 only after the
police received a bribe of Rs 20,000 from Zakir's brother-in-law
Rashid.

After his release from police custody, Zakir came to know from Rashid
that
he was freed after a bribe was given. He told everybody that it was
quite
unfair to take bribe from a kidnap victim. A livid Zakir sent a written
complaint to senior police officials.

When SI Tyagi came know about the complaint against him, he called
Zakir to
the police station, tied his hands to a pillar and thrashed him. He was
humiliated and was allowed to go with a warning that he shouldn't open
his
mouth against the police and his kidnappers.

Zakir reached his house and narrated the whole story to his
father-in-law
Feroz, who immediately approached several senior police officials
including
the SSP, SP (CITY) and CO (Border). He gave some copies of his
complaint to
mediapersons too.

By chance, in April, Chief Minister Rajnath Singh visited Ghaziabad to
attend a function of Varta Lok Housing Society. After the function was
over,
the Chief Minister was apprised of the shameful act of Sahibabad Police
on
which he assured that an inquiry would be conducted.

When they came to know that the matter was put before the Chief
Minister,
the Sahibabad Police were very angry at Feroz. Meanwhile, the
criminals, who
attempted to kill Feroz and had kidnapped Zakir threatened the family
of
Feroz that they would have to face dire consequences.

The victims Zakir and Feroz informed the police that they were being
threatened by Mausam, Saleem and company. The police did nothing on
their
complaint.

Sub Inspector Tyagi was not even transferred from his beat. And
finally, at
5.30pm on the 3rd of this month, Mausam, Saleem alias Kala, Nawab and
Momin
shot Feroz dead.

Even after the expiry of three days the police have done nothing in
this
case and the notorious criminals are still at large.